Happy Holidays from DFYL!

A View From Above

All the best from Steven and the gang at DFYL!

CHIPOTLE Night on August 19th

Hello everyone! Please come and support DFYL at Chipotle tonight located at 8500 Firestone Blvd. in Downey on Saturday, August 19th between 5:00pm and 9:00pm. We hope to see everyone there!

Please bring this flyer with you! 

Volunteer Manveer Chaihal addresses the Downey City Council in support of DFYL

On June 27, 2017 DFYL Volunteer, Manveer Chaihal, addressed the City Council about the need to create a Resource Fair in Downey to let parents of children who may not be reading at grade level, or who may have other developmental concerns, how to access the resources in their local community, like DFYL's Reading & Rhythm program!

We're on Instagram!

https://www.instagram.com/drummingforyourlife/

Welcome to DFYL Snapchat!

We will be posting daily on Snapchat to keep you up to date about our work in the community!  To add  DFYL on Snapchat using your Android or iPhone just click here:

Volunteers Talk About What DFYL Does in the Community at Volunteer Fair 2017

DFYL Volunteers, Izzy Dier and Manveer Chaihal, explain to community members, parents, City Council members and other teens, why they should volunteer with DFYL, and why it's important work in their community.

Serving At Risk Youth Through a $5,000 Better World Books Grant

We are thrilled to have received the Better World Books Literacy Grant for $5,000!  With it we were able to provide SEA Manchester and SEA South Gate, two charter schools that serve low-income and at-risk teens in LA, four Reading & Rhythm program classes.  Thirty nine students participated in the program.  Students that were pre and post tested raised their scores, on average 42% and 1/3 of those students went up 4-5 grade levels.  Some students went from a 2nd grade reading level to 7th grade reading level! 

Hearing the words "Who wants to read," or "Akira, read this," I would shut down.  Words I knew became just letters on a page up until Mr. Rob came to my school.  He told me it's nothing to be scared of, and that the program was different.  Its more than just reading and, at first, I sat out of the meetings, for two sessions.  But I tried it ,and day after day I slowly liked it and practiced at home.  Now I can read smooth, not choppy.   

Akira Brown

SEA Manchester

We are very grateful to all persons involved with helping us to secure this grant and providing this outreach, as well as those supporters who got the vote out for our Reading & Rhythm program. 

Reading & Rhythm classes provide at risk youth, children with Dyslexia, ADHD,  High Functioning Autism, trauma, and those struggling to read, the gift of learning how to read through rhythm using a multisensory approach.  We hope to continue to make classes available at juvenile halls, detention camps, probation centers and in after school programs for the benefit of all.  Many thanks to Better World Books for helping us reach more children and give them more tools to improve their literacy.          

Reading & Rhythm at The Help Group's Special Needs Resource Fair!

We participated in The Help Group's 7th Annual Special Needs Resource Fair on Sunday, April 2nd and connected with families that were excited to learn more about our Reading & Rhythm Program. This was also where we were able to debut our colorful, new Reading & Rhythm t-shirts!   

Interview with Empire Broadcasting Group

Check out the Empire Broadcasting Group's interview with Steven Angel on the Reading & Rhythm Program here:

Empire Radio Interview with Steve Angel on Reading & Rhythm

Outreach Into the Community at Kids In The Kitchen!

Our interns and volunteers came out this Saturday to do some outreach in the Long Beach community.  Jessica Torres and Izzy Dier helped get the word out to parents, so that families could find out more about what DFYL and our Reading & Rhythm program has to offer emergent readers! 

Drum Journey's with Television Hit Show Transparent

Steven has led three drum journeys with the Emmy award winning television show Transparent over the past two years. Two were with the crew and one was with a group that included, one of the stars (Jay Duplass), the writer, director and cinematographer of episode 7, season two. The New York Times wrote:  “The scene between Raquel and Josh (Jay) inside the temple is one of the strongest of the season so far; both Kathryn Hahn and Jay Duplass infuse their final conversation with so much subtext and unutterable hurt.”

Reading & Rhythm is Expanding to Charter Schools!

DFYL has expanded to work with Public Charter Schools.  We are now vendors for Excel Academy of Arts and Sciences, Sky Mountain, Epic, Inspire, CCCP, California Pacific Charter Schools, Gorman, Sage Oak, Pathways and continue to work with SEA.  We are very excited about the potential of reaching hundreds of more students through our partnership with these Charters.